Roby Chicks Pics - Christmas Special and Star Wars III!

Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode III, which I animated on, just aired on Dec. 19th. It really turned out amazing. I am so proud to have been a part of it.

If you missed it, it is viewable online on it's official site here on Dec. 27th. It is also available on iTunes right now! 3 bucks. Deal.

And 2 weeks ago was the Robot Chicken Christmas Special. I animated a whole 4 seconds on it! Watch it streaming on adult swim here. (WARNING - blood, blood, and swears)

Robot Chicken Star Wars III

I had the great opportunity to be an animator on the upcoming Robot Chicken Star Wars III. I just returned from the crew premier at Mr. Lucas' own Skywalker Ranch, and it was absolutely amazing. It airs Sunday, December 19th.

Nautical Boy HD

A new 2D animated short I completed this quarter at SCAD. 2 month for 20 seconds... goodness.

Here's Nautical Boy!

Groove Me - Maximum Balloon music video

My buddy Carlos Lopez Estrada directed a great music video for Maximum Balloon's new single, Groove Me. If you look closely, you can spot me in a few shots.

The sky time lapse that James Biscardi and I made, Le Ciel Roulant, was used as the primary green screen effect and can be seen in 90% of the shots in the video. Check out those beautiful clouds!



Also check out the Directors Cut of it!
It was featured on the front page of Vimeo.com!

SHINE - A music video

There's a pretty long story behind this video, but I won't bore you with it...

Ok. Basically here is a music video I made for The Dirty Heads - Shine. Created in 2 months all within my dorm room a year and a half ago. I experimented with the idea of clay only being illuminated by black lights. The effect was a fun galactic-bowling glow feeling that I was extremely happy about.



The label wasn't though, and therefor was not used as they're official video. Ah well. Watching it again now, over a year later, I still and overall quite happy with it. A few issues, yes (the live action of the band wasn't great video quality, and they never played the song Shine in the footage, I just edited them playing other songs to match) but I am happy to show it off now.

Finally, some footage to show

Hello!

I finally cut something together to show on the interwebs for "Campfire." It's a nice little trailer, that gives you a glimpse of the animation and the feel of the short.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3-OQipwLmc

The whole short film SHOULD be done by now, but life has kept me busy. Living in France for 2 months, now in LA for the summer, it's crazy. Good news is that I am officially working at ShadowMachine, working on a little show called "Robot Chicken." It's been going great.

Campfire will be completed, someday. In the mean-time, enjoy this little trailer!

Where I've been...

There has not been that much news in terms of Campfire, sadly, but there is a reason for that. The past two months I have been studying abroad in southern France with 60 other SCAD students. It was probably the best decision of my life to go there.

Since I was not taking any animation courses while I was there, I needed to get my video-making fix. I teamed up with my friend, James Biscardi (master photographer) to create an epic time-lapse of the area we were staying in. You may recognize some very known french monuments hidden in there as well.

So here it is! Le Ciel Roulant / The Rolling Sky

Le Ciel Roulant / The Rolling Sky - A time lapse of France from Dan MacKenzie on Vimeo.

A plug for a friend's film

Taking a break from "Campfire" for a moment to plug a sweet stop motion project by some animation friends of mine: "Line".

Justin and Shel Rasch are the duo behind the stop motion short, "Gerald's Last Day".

They Have a new animation in the works, currently titled, "Line." It looks great, and they have been blogging the whole production process on it on their blog here.

What they could use though, is a bit of inve$ting to finish up the film. Click the image below to check out some clips of Line, and learn how you can help out the project. They're offering great memorabilia from their work, like sculptures, DVDs, ect., along with supporter credit in the final short. Check it out!

As for little Benjamin campfire boy, he's relaxing at the moment. I'm traveling over to France in 2 days, so I'll hopefully have a bit of time to finish the final cut soon. Sound design is being worked on as well.

Goodbye, forest set.

I had the move out of my dorm to go back home, and out went the set, too. It was sad to break it apart, but I was able to salvage an important section...
Benjamin the campfire boy made it home safely... but not all of the set was safe:
Lighting rig for the fire glow.
Lost footage of the forest set in its natural habitat...

I animated the film.

Finished shooting! 10 hours straight to shoot the big final shot. It's worth it.

Now it is time to edit, this will be my first full HD short film.

Just a matter of days now...

55 seconds animated...

Over half the animation is shot, and it's looking quite good. Already this is the best piece of work I've done, so that's cool.

Jumpin' rig.
He is not pleased at all about this.
This was posed.
A peek at some animation:

All in all, I am very pleased with how things are going. I am looking to have this finished within the week... wish me luck!

Animation begins!

Eyes are heavy... but the animation is coming along very well. I officially have 15 seconds complete!

A few stills of the finished set:

And a little video tour:

A few stills from the film... no footage for you.

Woods set progress.

Trees. Paintin' a couple of trees.

Terribly unhappy at work.Quick test shot for tree placement.
whoops.I am planning to finish the set by tomorrow, it's starting to really take shape now.
The animation stage is so close...

Puppet Complete!

Awesome mini-outfit sewn by Courtney Brooke Vaughan!
He loves his new pants.
Finished Campfire Boy (Benjamin? Gregory?) puppet!
I am super happy with how he turned out... I can't wait to make him come alive.
But first... I must finish the set:

"Campfire" Puppet progress and more!

Everything's going pretty well! But it's all about to pick up speed. Almost finished with the puppet, and have begun work on the set and props.
Mr. Campfire boy (name?) checking out his 3 resin skulls.



Roughed out body and heads. Three replacement heads: Happy, Sad/confused, and Mad. In this picture they're all pretty happy. It's about time for some latex skin and mini-clothes!


My friend Courtney is working on sewing the mini-flannel shirt and pants. She's got some skills!
Two 2' by 4' wooden floor pieces for the set, along with the construction of the tent.

This project is already effecting my home-life:
Beginning to make my bedroom my stop motion studio... !

"Campfire" Progress: Puppet.

I am happy how the puppet's coming together. This little guy is my first none-clay full character I've created, and so far I'm happy with how he's coming along. It's going to be nice not having to smooth out the clay each frame on this one!
3 resin skull molds.
Final armature.
What good buddies.

Adding some foam to him. Foam sculpting fun.

"Fix." experimental animation v.1

Here's an experimental animation I'm working on. I may expand on it. Less copyrighted song, more sound and animation to it. For now, here it is, "Fix." version 1.


UPDATE:
I finished it, adding a couple new shots, watch it here!

"Campfire" Stop motion animation production 1: Jan 24, 2010

I have begun a new animated short film! The current title is "Campfire." I will try to post updates on it as I go on, along with various other things I make.
Campfire is a story of a young boy camping alone who is trying to start a nice little campfire. He does not do a good job. The end!

I have finished the storyboards and animatic, now comes the building process.

And I have also sculpted the maquette of the main character, picture above. He is baked super sculpey, painted. The final puppet will be foam and fabric.

Stay tuned!
-Dan MacKenzie
www.Mackmation.com