Keenan's Journal of Animation

Latest Parkour Video

2011-10-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

Back on Laborday Weekend we had a crazy 4 days of training, partying and seeing some incredible sights.

check out the video

Spent a lot of time in SF this weekend. Hung out with some buddies on Embarcadero Saturday and went to Kirby cove Sunday and got some beautiful shots. Using a new 7D I'm still getting to know this camera. There is plenty of equipment I could get to make shots better but it's bare bones and raw right now. Wanting to move the camera around more than rely on zooms, I shoot almost everything on a Nikkor 50 1.8

This video is a mix of my 2 hobbies, parkour and video making.

Music by Cornelius. the song is called "Star Fruits Surf Rider", from the Fantasma album.

Animation Reel

2011-09-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

Effects Breakdown Death of a Flea

2011-06-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a shot I comped on our Short film, Small Sacrifices.

The stop motion footage was shot on a motion control rig using the kuper system. Phil Created the Matte Paints in Photoshop. I then camera mapped them onto 3d geometry in Maya. The snow particles, I made in Maya. Their individual shapes are textures I scanned from little clumps of baking soda, which are randomly assigned to each particle. The rest of the compositing was done in After Effects. The fog was shot practically, in HD, the blue channel had to be removed, because it was noisy garbage. I then used the fog as a matte on a greyish blue solid so the fog could have a more even hue. We dropped a piece of black clay into the fog to have it react.

Here's a labeled version in case any of that was confusing.

In other news, Neil's posted some trailers of Small Sacrifices that can be see here.

And the Film's website will be up soon!

Where Have I Been?

2011-02-07T11:41:00.001-08:00

It's almost been a year since my last post on here. I am back and hopefully will be posting new things. I've been working on a project with Neil Baker called small sacrifices. It's pretty much what you get when a louse and a team of flea sherpas climb a snow covered mountain. check out the blog here.

http://smallsacrificesproject.blogspot.com/

There is talk of a new .com site for small sacrifices coming soon

Stay tuned for more animation.

The Cleaning is now online!

2010-05-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

Master of Puppets

2010-03-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

Watching TCM's Akira Kurosawa 100 birthday marathon, I saw an ad for this

click on the image to see what i'll be doing the 26th.

Raising Wires

2010-01-29T00:23:00.000-08:00

The first shot of many to come has finished production. Here's a sneak peak.

I'll be upgrading these images to HD and tweaking the lighting. Check back soon, there's more to come.

Arne Get's a New Look

2010-01-26T12:37:00.000-08:00

In an Older Post I revealed some photos of Arne the armature's birth. Well as of yesterday, he has hit puberty. Puberty hit back, and the results are terrifyingly awkward.

Here's a shot of old Arne(or maybe it's young Arne)

I then drew over this image in photoshop to imagine how he might fill out.

Arne in all his tangled glory.

I also stuffed his naughty bits with clay to hide the yellowish epoxy.

Currently listening to Eclectic Electric by Primus

Jippidy

2009-07-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

I shot my first video for Jippidy, this new company I've been working for. We had a party at Pisco, this lounge in SF. I filmed the festivities and made this ad for Jippidy's website. You can watch the Video I made here.

The Next Test

2009-06-09T20:32:00.000-07:00

No matter what I try my animation keeps trying to get away from me. It's like I intimidate him or something.

This test is the same technique as the last one, only the paper is moving away and keeping the character in the same place. Half of the animation was traced backwards to complete the loop. I know I'm a dirty cheater.

Twisted Metal

2009-06-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

The Birth of the armature. This is a wire Armature that is going to remain naked for most of the film. So I'm trying to keep him looking simple.

Twisting Wire.

Finished body

Setting epoxy in small paper molds.

completed.

I need to try to shave down the epoxy and try to get rid of the paper. Besides that he's ready for movement!

Testing, Testing...1...2

2009-06-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on a run cycle for the past few weeks. In 2d, I'm definitely less comfortable animating, But after a couple tries I've got something I'm proud of.

I really needed to get a cycle done so I could do this. My first test with the 2d boxboy running in his natural habitat.

In this test, I retraced the run cycle over multiple pieces of paper which are replaced frame by frame. The pieces of paper are moving around a lot right now. for my next test, I need to control the paper more. so the it's movement is a result of boxboy running across it rather than a result of my animating.

and now a Word from Our Sponsors

2009-06-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

The Cleaning (dripping title)

2009-04-29T21:08:00.000-07:00

Neil is going to enter The Cleaning into another festival. So Jake and I gave it a spanky new title sequence. No you can't see the film! but here is the title for ya!

2-Ton Crystal Clear

2009-03-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

I just bought a whole lot of epoxy earlier today. And have spent the rest of the day tuning up my armature. It appears he has week feet.

This looks like a job for the "Job Box".

Clay is now getting replacement feet. I added metal washers to the base for extra structural support.

So when it comes time to animate Clay, he will have a leg to stand on.

I'm calling him Clay because he's made of clay.

It's Alive!!!

2009-03-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

We returned to the garage for another triumphant film. This time we explore the origin of Jake's green armonster. But perhaps there is more to it than we thought...

Shiney New Demo Reel

2009-03-13T02:09:00.000-07:00

Animation and Visual Effects Demo Reel

Project Haulted

2009-03-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

Well it was a big learning experience.

This company hired me to create a video to play on their website. We would have a meeting or phone talk once a week to discuss what we wanted. after getting a first example animated. The company decided it wasn't what they wanted and canceled the project. sigh...

Here's the original Video I made.

They wanted me to make some changes and here is the revised copy. Let's play a game can you spot the changes?

So Jake and I have a devious plan to continue the video. I had a bunch of unused material laying around and thought I'd post it here.

Super Cabinet aka Electronic Drawer

Hot Damn! a New Blog!

2009-03-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

So after ranting about google's account policies and hashing together a biting summary of my old blog I found out you can import an old blog into a new one. So all of this seems a little out of context.

So instead I can talk about the new. Yes a new blog because of my new email.

I've got dozens of baby pictures from my next project's development. And there's Neil's new epic film. There's a lot of new things I'm excited about.

Makes me happy!

Tonights Going to be Awesome!

2008-11-14T11:00:00.002-08:00

Tonight is the night of the SF International Animation Festival! it will also be the premiere of the Dandy Warhols' Welcome to the Third World music video. It will be shown as part of the Play it by Eye show. Myself as well as a hand full of other De Anza students have animated footage in the video. Webster Colcord was the director on this project and the one who got me some work on the video. I'm really excited to be able to seem my work on the big screen!

If you're interested seeing the show, here's some helpful nuggets of info.

When: November 14, 2008, 10:15 pm,
Where: Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema

You can still purchase tickets online here

have a listen to welcome to the third world right now

I stole this Image from Jenny's Live journal

Tonight's going to be awesome!

Thrusday Night Blob Tests

2008-11-07T12:28:00.002-08:00

I couldn't wait to upload these shots!

Last night, hopped up on volcano tacos and sparks, Jake and I put together some test animations for our up coming short film we're working on. I won't say which one, But it involved a lot of clay and blue hands; very, very, berry? blue hands. Jake and I took turns animating while the other "observed" (I call it back seat animating). we got four tests completed. I animated the first and third shot. Jake did the second and fourth shot.

We were focusing on developing entrances and mobility with a viscous anthropomorphic character. We also tried breaking away from the shape of the character, becoming something more organic, and returning to something anthropomorphic.

But enough with the two dollar words, I'll let the video speak for itself.

Blob Monster Tests from Keenan Manely on Vimeo.

Yes Jake, I went over to the light side and started a vimeo account. My soul feels better already.

Halloween 08 Sound track

2008-11-05T20:01:00.002-08:00

Quinn and I had the idea to make our own scary soundtrack for the house. He had some seriously demented ideas for haunted locals. We poured my gimmicks and his genius into and outline. After that Bobby and I sought out to record sounds. With nothing more than a sounds recorder, a microphone and a couple Sherpas, we journeyed to some of the darkest reaches of Burlingame. The Sherpas didn't survive But we made it out with audio in hand. Audio which we fashioned into 9 tormenting tracks.

A House That Wanted to be Haunted

2008-11-04T13:02:00.002-08:00

Another Halloween has come and passed. This year's decorations were a success. Only the number of kids was not as big of a turn out as last year. Lots of candy was left over; an even greater success!

Me and my dad made a big inflatable catfish looking thing which would dance around in front of a strobe.

Quinn and I had the idea to make our own scary soundtrack for the house. I'll see if I can upload the tracks later today.

A Clicka Chick Boom!

2008-11-03T18:58:00.002-08:00

Ironing out the kinks of the garage studio of animating, Jake and I have had some time to improvise some test animations. We managed to squeeze in some time to add audio between our busy schedule of playing video games. Expect more to come in this area as we fine tune our workspace and straiten out our actors.

The first show was a disaster. Lights and camera on you can be a bit unnerving. Disregarding the script, Jake's character began to make vulgar gestures. Being a man of professionalism, my character go was infuriated about this. And before any words could be exchanged, the two had at each other. In the aftermath, Jake and I were left to patch up broken and disjointed limbs.

This puts a dark cloud over our budding studio, when the talent can't get along with each other. A certain wire and clay puppet is going to have to clean up his act if he wants to keep his job. Luckily we did manage to get the whole incident on film. Maybe we'll be able to still make a quick buck off the footage and mark the whole thing as a write-off.

COME SEE THE 2 TEMPERAMENTAL ACTORS BARE KNUCKLE BRAWL!
WATCH AS RAW CELEBRITY EMOTION BOILS TO THE SURFACE!
GAWK AT THE RAW POWER OF paper and clay !
LOOK... at the computer screen.

TMZ AIN'T GOT NOTHIN' ON US! ... BITCHES!

Malibu Keenan

2008-09-09T11:31:00.002-07:00

This week Keenan goes to the beach!

So things have gotten underway on the Westlake project since the last post. There have been many sleepless nights. piecing together 3 animated sequences from items in my room. One oh so special item was my printer, who needs liquid refreshment after a week of printing. Scraps of paper and saw dust have made themselves at home about my floor. In fact my whole room has been taken over by equipment. When the time comes for sleep, it's probably easier to stay up and continue working rather than maneuvering myself to my bed without disrupting the set.

I got my caffeine on and wrapped up a bad ass beach scene last night! The better part of the day was spent making the set. As the sun went down, I animated my characters to golden sunset.

This is a video so you can see what makes this set tick. It's pretty self explanatory. And if you can spot my busted Motorola phone you win a high five!

Don't forget the high res pics, ladies love the high res pics.

Why not, I'll throw in a final frame from the animation as well

And since I'm unloading I might as well put the pick-up in reverse and slam on the breaks.

And that's the rest of them!
Oh! business people with their phones and folders!

Property management ain't got nothin' on this

2008-09-01T15:31:00.002-07:00

This past week has been a whirlwind of twisting wire, cutting paper and gluing paper, and that was just my trip to Tahoe. But seriously people... The Westlake corporation has given me limited artistic freedom on this brand new project. I give to you "the Perpetuation of Self Employment" a serious animation test about why humans enjoy monotony. This ones for you Jake

In other video related news I strapped on my strap-on rocket pants this morning and finally got off my lazy ass. I uploaded something else that has been sitting on my computer's virtual shelf collecting virtual dust for virtually forever.

Enjoy

And now you are here

2008-08-22T15:37:00.002-07:00

If you are a fancy bitch, please enjoy my fresh new blog. Enjoy the clean blank page and ponder existance for as long as you are here. These spaces will fill up soon enough.

...

If you are not a fancy bitch, let me introduce myself.

My name is Keenan Manely. I am an Animation and film student finishing up at De Anza. I am in Pre production of a short film as a requirement for graduation.( more on that to come) I like short walks on the beach and staring at the sun at night.

Feel free to subscribe to my blog and you will get spam about my latest projects.